


Falling Feathers

by Angelwingsl3 (Marie_Fanwriter)



Series: Filling in the Blanks [2]
Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: A Devil of My Word, Angst, Cannon Violence, Cannon compliant, Episode 24, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Injured Lucifer, References to Religion, Season 3, Whump, cannon gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-29
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2020-07-24 21:57:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20021674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marie_Fanwriter/pseuds/Angelwingsl3
Summary: Lucifer felt the blood drain from his face as her name fell from his lips. “Chloe?”For a moment, all was still as though Amenadiel stopped time in the instant the Detective saw his face. Lucifer’s breath caught in his throat, and he could have sworn his heart stuttered in his chest. But as Chloe staggered away from him, falling back to sit on the bottom marble step, his whole world came crashing down around him.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A story inspired by this [**scene**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV6CZaKAXpM) in season 3, episode 24 Devil of my Word.
> 
> Heed the tags, please! It's cannon with a little more visceral reality.

\---

Lucifer felt the blood drain from his face as her name fell from his lips. “Chloe?”

For a moment, all was still as though Amenadiel stopped time in the instant the Detective saw his face. Lucifer’s breath caught in his throat, and he could have sworn his heart stuttered in his chest. But as Chloe staggered away from him, falling back to sit on the bottom marble step, his whole world came crashing down around him.

All at once reality set in.

With shaking hands, Lucifer turned away and covered his face. He took a single, stumbling pace. His muscles refused to cooperate any further, causing him to fall to his knees at Marcus’ side. His back bowed, pain blossoming from too many places to count. A strangled gasp cut through the air like- like-

His breaths quickened as Lucifer lost control of them, making his lungs burn.

Distantly, he was aware of the sound of sirens. Time was short, and amongst the carnage, he stood guilty. Blood was literally on his hands. He- he couldn’t stay here. As his fingers parted, his gaze drifted to Peirce’s body, Mazikeen’s knife stuck into his chest gleaming in the bright lights.

Lucifer’s hands hovered over the body for a long moment. He’d done this. No life remained in the glossed over gaze as Peirce’s dead stare rested on Lucifer. It was a coincidence his head landed where it did. It had to be. Dragging his eyes from the man’s face, they returned to the knife. Like Azreal’s blade, it could only do harm in humanity’s hands. He couldn’t allow it to remain.

A swift tug brought with it the sick sound of gore leaving the wound. The blade should never cut a human. It was far too volatile. Peirce --Cain-- was dead. At the least, he couldn’t hurt anyone anymore.

The sirens drew nearer, bringing with them the squeal of tires and the beginnings of shouts. Lucifer couldn’t stay here. He placed his hands on the floor in an attempt to lever himself up. His arms quivered with the effort, his back screamed at him. It hurt so damn much. But Lucifer understood pain; he’d fallen from Heaven after all.

By the time he straightened to some semblance of upright, he could feel the sweat building along his collar and sliding down his neck. He pocketed the knife and wiped his brow with the edge of his sleeve. His skin was smooth again when his human face returned; Lucifer didn’t know.

“Ch- Chloe,” Lucifer stuttered over her name, between his breathlessness and his fear he couldn’t keep his voice even. “We have to- we have to leave.”

Turning, he found her still staring at him with her mouth agape. The reaction reminded Lucifer of Linda’s. This time, however, he could not simply leave. More of Cain’s men might be hiding in the shadows. And then there was the matter of the officers outside. Soon, the building would be swarming with them, and they would find her dead-eyed and agape at a deadman surrounded by bloody feathers.

No. Lucifer would not leave Chloe.

Faltering footsteps took Lucifer closer until he was standing a bare metre away. “Det-” his tongue darted out to moisten his lips. They felt dry and chapped. “Detective, we have to go.”

She made no sign that she noticed him. Chloe’s eyes stared into the middle distance, unseeing. Had it not been for the rapid rise and fall of her shoulders, he would have thought she wasn’t breathing; she was so still otherwise.

“Chloe?” His uninjured arm carefully reached out, stopping in the middle distance between them. He didn’t dare touch her without consent.

No matter how wrecked he felt, Lucifer wouldn’t abandon her. Gingerly, he lowered himself to one knee in front of her. The strain across his back made his gut roil. Despite the fact his wings were folded back into the celestial plane, he could feel the blood sloughing down the feathers. He could almost hear the bones scraping together as he moved and like shards of glass, they dug into his nerves. Lucifer bit back the bile.

“Please, Chloe. We have to go.”

Let it never be said that the Devil was above begging. It proved useful, whether due to the tone or the words, Lucifer didn’t know, but it worked. He dropped his hand as she blinked a few times. He could almost see the world coming back into focus in front of her. All at once, she came to her senses and scanned the room with a calculating eye, just as she would any other crime scene.

“Lucifer?” She questioned when she finally looked at him. Her eyes darted across his features, no doubt searching for signs of his other face. When Chloe found none, she reached out to touch him. Lucifer didn’t allow her, he flinched, and she stopped. “What happened? You’re bleeding.”

“I’m-” he’d been about to say ‘fine,’ but that would have been a lie. He amended his words carefully, dancing around the subject. “I will heal.” He looked pointedly at her collar where she’d taken a bullet to the vest. “Are you all right?”

Her eyes narrowed until Lucifer gestured at his collarbone in a mirror of where she took a bullet. Chloe rubbed at the blossoming bruise that had begun to creep up her neck. “Mostly.”

A shout from the stairwell and more gunfire stole their attention. Lucifer whipped around, making himself a wall between Chloe and the doorway. A pained gasp followed the motion as his body caught up with his gut reaction. The door remained shut.

“Lucifer!” She grabbed his shoulder and no sooner than her hand touched down did he crumple, trying to get away from it. The shouts were forgotten for a moment as white-hot agony blanked out his vision.

When he returned to himself, Lucifer realized he was on the cold stone floor. He’d fallen. Chloe knelt above him, and her hands hovered over his arm. He groaned, forcing himself to his hands and knees. A cough brought blood with it; the Devil could taste iron in his throat. After a false start, he managed to scramble to his feet.

Chloe pulled his arm, dragging him behind an overturned statue and he collapsed without any semblance of grace. She held one of the assault rifles tightly in her hands and kept a watch on the door. Another three shots echoed from the stairwell, making the weapon tremble. Lucifer’s gaze glued itself to the woman. She’d pulled him to relative safety.

“Ch-”

“Shush!” Chloe did not allow him to speak, not even looking at him as she shook her head to quiet his attempt to gain her attention. “I- I don’t know who’s out there.”

He caught her scanning the room, and when she flinched over something she saw, he had to ask after it. “What is it?”

“That’s Officer Reed,” she said, her voice flat. With great effort, Lucifer forced himself up enough to see over the barrier and look at the man she mentioned. One of Cain’s men lay unconscious. Lucifer had thrown him into a pillar. “Who else did he have on his payroll?”

The whispered question was rhetorical. Even if it wasn’t, Lucifer didn’t know the answer. He dropped down, feeling the wet slide of blood along his back. His wings burned. They wanted to live in the same reality as him, and it took nearly all his focus to keep them hidden in the celestial plane. He’d bleed to death with them out near Chloe. If- if Cain’s men came for them, he’d do whatever it took to protect her, but until then he needed to keep alive.

“We need to go,” Lucifer reaffirmed through gritted teeth. “Chloe, please.”

Her gaze snapped to him, but it was too late. The door slammed open, and tens of booted feet stomped into the room. Lucifer got to his knees beside Chloe, ready to throw out his wings but the faces were familiar even through the riot gear with helmets and shields. The first shout of “LAPD!” made his chest clench but he waited for Chloe’s next move. She would know better than him what to do. “Drop your weapons and show us your hands!”

To Lucifer’s horror, Chloe dropped the gun. It clattered to the floor. “This is Detective Decker, don’t shoot!”

“Decker!” Another voice shouted back. Lucifer tried to place it, but couldn’t. “Stand up, hands raised!”

Chloe looked to him, her eyes wide but unafraid. There was no way out, not with more than ten officers against them. She inclined her head to gesture for him to stand with her. And he did. It would be easier to protect her on his feet. His head swam as he rose in time with Chloe, standing with his hands in front of him, following the Detective’s example. He kept his shoulder in front of her, holding her a step behind him. Their backs were to the wall, and they stood underneath the balcony, at least they weren’t exposed on all sides.

All around them, the SWAT team fanned out to secure the room. A minute later, officers shouted ‘clear’ from all corners. Once the last officer went silent, the one who appeared to be in charge crossed the room. Shed eyed Cain’s corpse as she approached him and Chloe. Her rifle was held loose in her hands, but it made the woman appear no less dangerous.

She stopped three metres away, looking the pair over even as unoccupied officers approached from either side to corner them. Lucifer barely contained a growl. But without any sign of open aggression, he couldn’t rightly attack or show his Divinity.

“You’re damn lucky Espinoza called us, Decker,” the woman explained as she holstered the rifle and pulled off her helmet. Chloe appeared to recognize her.

“Simmons,” she greeted, deflating a little behind him. Lucifer took a brief second to glance over his shoulder, catching Chloe’s expression of honest relief. He staggered away a step to sit on the edge of the statue, still close enough to assist, but it looked like the worst was over.

Lucifer watched her fall into ‘cop mode.’ Gone was the shaking leaf from minutes ago and in its place stood Detective Decker in all her glory. He tried to listen and found it impossible to follow. There were more sirens, more people rushing in as time drifted on. The goons were taken away on stretchers or in cuffs while Cain’s body was left where it lay in the middle of the room surrounded by bloody feathers Chloe couldn’t explain.

An officer tried to speak with him and looked Lucifer in the eye just a little too long. Said Officer kept the rest away from him. “Mr. Morningstar needs some space, why don’t you-” the excuses didn’t matter, but it kept him from needing to speak with anyone else.

When Daniel’s voice broke through Lucifer’s haze, his head snapped to the sound.

“Chloe!”

And that was Lucifer’s queue. With Daniel here, Chloe was safe. He would not allow any harm to come to the mother of his child. For all his douchiness, he still cared for Chloe after their separation. They were better as friends. They both knew that now.

Dan pulled Chloe into a hug and with the simple gesture, she started to let herself break. Lucifer could see her hands shaking as they clenched onto Dan’s jacket. Her face fell into the crook of his shoulder, and he held her tightly, telling her everything would be okay. Trixie was with his parents. Marcus was dead, and he couldn’t hurt them any longer.

“Bollocks,” Lucifer swore as he stumbled over some loose stone chunks. Both Chloe and Dan looked up to see him catch himself on a broken pillar. Stealth had never been the Devil’s strong suit.

“Hey, are you alright, man?” Dan was already taking a step closer, concern lacing his voice, and his eyes drifted from Lucifer’s face to his back. His suit jacket stuck to him with blood. “You’re bleeding pretty bad.”

“I’ll be fine,” he ground out. As much as it pained him, Lucifer knew he wouldn’t last much longer. He needed to go. A handful of long strides had him across the room to the exit. If he could get alone for a second, he could fly away on his broken wings one more time. He knew he could. They’d held his weight and Chloe’s earlier.

His hand hit the doorframe, leaving a smear of blood behind. He couldn’t stop.

“Lucifer, wait!” Chloe yelled after him.

The sound broke his heart, and he did the only thing he could, he bolted. He heard boots pounding behind him, people following, but he got clear, and with a stifled yell, his wings appeared and he was gone.

\---


	2. Chapter 2

\---

Lucifer landed gracelessly in a heap of bloodied feathers.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself on Lux’s empty balcony. The sunlight was too bright, and it forced him to shut them again with a groan and fight down a wave of nausea as the world reasserted itself after his brief flash through the celestial plane. Travelling miles in a second should have been nothing for an Archangel. The Devil was out of practice.

Heaving air into his lungs, Lucifer tried to stave off the burn emanating from his wings as they began to heal. Without Chloe nearby, they attempted to revert to their natural state -whole and unblemished. However, with numerous bullets stuck in his flesh, skin and bone began mending around the metal.

He couldn’t so much as reach for the phone vibrating in his suit pant pocket; it hurt too much. Somehow, the device remained functional after the firefight. Whoever was calling would have to wait.

Blinding agony kept Lucifer facedown and screaming for what felt like hours in the blazing hot California sun. For the second time in his long life, memories of falling assaulted his senses. First, as he awoke in the desert, burned and newly winged, and now again.

At some point, his world went blissfully black. 

\--

The next time Lucifer woke, he opened his eyes to darkness. For the first moment, he almost thought himself back in Hell. The sounds of the city below reassured him that was not the case. He didn’t know if that was a relief or not considering the torment he could still feel along the length of his spine. 

As much as he was loathed to admit it, he needed help. Amenadiel didn’t respond to his prayer, he hadn’t since the night Charlotte died, the selfish prick. Next to call would be Mazikeen. No matter their argument, he knew the demon would come if he struck a deal to take her home. Then perhaps Doctor Linda, she wasn’t a medical doctor, but that never stopped her in the past.

A few deep breaths helped Lucifer rotate his shoulder, and through clenched teeth, he managed to slide his arm down to the rim of his pocket. With shaking hands and a stifled yell, Lucifer managed to reach his phone and pull it up to his eye-level on the patio.

Thirty-seven messages awaited him along with 4% battery life. “Bollocks.”

Nine from the business (Lux and favours alike), four were booty-calls, three were missed calls and texts from Daniel, six were Ella, Linda sent twelve including three labelled ‘EMERGENCY,’ two Mazikeen, and his heart skipped a beat when he noticed one said, Detective.

His phone flashed 2% before he managed to pull his gaze away from the Detective’s missed call notification. “Bloody Hell,” he swore as he hit Mazikeen’s contact. Only, she wasn’t the one to answer. Instead, Lucifer found with Doctor Linda.

_ “Lucifer!” _ she yelled into the line, making him wince.  _ “I’ve been calling you all day!” _

He swallowed, trying to speak through the cotton feeling in his throat. “I apologize. Been a little indisposed, Darling.”

_ “Don’t you ‘Darling’ me!” _ He smiled, even thru the phone he could imagine her air quoting and giving him that signature unimpressed glare.  _ “I need your help.” _

Huffing a laugh, Lucifer closed his eyes to stop the world spinning. “Funny, I seem to need yours as well. Come to the Penthouse. Bring Maze.”

_ “I- I can’t, Lucifer. Maze is hurt.” _

His eyes flew open as a pang of panic worked its way into his chest. There wasn’t much that could keep Mazikeen down, let alone so much that she’d allow Linda to admit it to him. “What?”

_ “She showed up at my office. Cain’s men attacked her.” _

Before Lucifer knew what he was doing, he’d managed to make it to his knees. His wings dragged on the ground, bloody and in agony. The phone fell from his hand and skittered across the tile as he caught himself. A pained gasp escaped into the cool night air.

_ “Lucifer!” _ He could faintly hear Linda yelling at him from the other side of the call.  _ “What’s going on? Are you alright?” _

She kept yelling until Lucifer managed to crawl to where it landed. He cut her off mid-sentence. “I will be there shortly. Your office?”

_ “Yes, but-”  _ Lucifer hit end call before she could finish. 

Mazikeen needed him. He had to get up. His jaw clenched hard enough that he could taste metal in his mouth as his gums bled. Climbing to his feet felt as burdensome as it had when he’d first fallen, and his naked body was burned raw. Then his wings remained pristine. Now they were the only thing sporting threatening wounds.

Dropping his head back, Lucifer looked to the skies. Panting for breath, he gazed up to the few stars he could see about LA. He would not give in, no matter how hard it was. With a single-- less than graceful-- flap of his wings, Lucifer was airborne once again.

His landing was no more agile in Linda’s office than it had been on the balcony. This time, however, there were two screams-- his own and Linda’s. Collapsing on the rug, leaving bloody feathers in the air falling slower than his more substantial body, Lucifer let out a groan. At once, Linda was on her knees at his side. Her hands hovered above his shoulder, uncertain if she should touch him.

For the first few minutes, it sounded as if she was underwater. When that cleared, her voice was shrill and begging Lucifer to wake. 

“‘M, fine,” he eventually mumbled as he waved her off with fingers that barely rose off the carpet. “Gimme a minute.”

Lucifer blinked his eyes open to see her stockinged feet beating a path across his vision. Her high heels were long gone; he could see them beneath her desk. The sight made him crack a smile, the hint of normality in all this chaos helped. 

Making his way up to his knees, he caught himself on the coffee table. Mazikeen was passed out on the couch, bloodied and bandaged. Her sleep was restless, Lucifer could tell from the snarl. While Demons didn’t dream per se, Maze always made faces as she slept. 

“I- I can help.” He said as he crawled to the edge of the sofa. When he came to a stop, he reached into the feathers under his left arm and, with a wince, he plucked one of the tertials. Laying the feather onto Mazikeen’s forehead, he closed his eyes and prayed. His brow furrowed, but he felt the warmth as the feather began to glow and then fade into her skin.

Lucifer heard Maze gasp as she came awake like someone catching their first breath of air after being held underwater too long. Her injuries, whatever they were, healed instantaneously.

Meanwhile, Lucifer felt his world dimming around the edges. When he opened his eyes, half his vision had gone dark. He wasn’t sure if he was swaying or if it was merely the room as his mouth pulled into a self-satisfied grin. Mazikeen was sitting up, her dark eyes peering into his with something like concern. 

“I healed you,” he mumbled, catching himself on the edge of the cushion as the swaying tried to pull him down. “Now, you do me. Deal?”

Her answer would go unheard. Lucifer crashed into blissful consciousness once again before he hit the floor.

\---

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for joining me for a second chapter! I'm looking forward to writing more in this world, stay tuned! I'll be adding sections as the mood strikes, but I've marked completed as it can (and does!) stand alone.

**Author's Note:**

> <3
> 
> This story was a blast to write. I hate how we're left wondering what happened over that month between season 3 and 4, so I'll fill in the gaps as much as I can. 
> 
> Marked completed for now as it can stand alone, however, I plan to add what happens next as time allows.


End file.
